how hard is it to count the strings and see this is a bass, and not a regular guitar?

Not hard if I had thought to court.

math ... hated it growing up.

That too.

I was good at basic math until my first algebra course. That ain't math. It ain't even English.

Bet you never had to use it on any job. Unless you used to be a rocket scientist.

Not to build houses. You measure stuff but in feet and inches. You don't need a scientific calculator for that.